Tuesday, February 20, 2007

My New Take-Out Menu

Restaurant meals are my downfall. From the quick pizza slice to the full-course meal, take-out and eat-out treats consume a large share of my extra dollars. I've made peace with my fondness for elegant sit-down meals, and I have different strategies for saving money while dining well.

But I'm taking action against mindless convenience meals driven by lack of time or energy. As such, I've redefined my concept of take-out food by opting to frugally take-out frozen food items from my freezer. This menu includes prepared and boxed frozen snacks and soups from the grocery store.

This heat-and-go menu costs more than DIY meals from scratch. But when I am in a hurry, spending $2 to $3 on a frozen entree is a lot cheaper than the $5 to $10 tab for a tuna fish sandwich and soup.

Teri Gault of the Grocery Game stressed the money-saving benefits of frozen foods when I interviewed her for a newspaper column. She pointed out that a family of four might spend $10 on four frozen meals ($2.50 x 4) versus about $30 to $50 at a restaurant.

Caution: Not all frozen food items are a bargain. Here are our numbers from a recent shopping trip:

No comments:

About Me: Writer, Mom and Journalist

I'm another spoiled writer, with fine tastes and a small budget. Author of a newspaper column about saving money. I have a fashionably frugal attitude: Live well, find meaning and stay on a budget.
Photo credit: Melanie Bell

Frugal Duchess Subscriptions

Buttons

My Disclaimer

The Frugal Duchess is not a health, beauty or financial professional. The material on this website should not be considered as health, beauty or financial advice.

Editorial & Advertising Policies

This website maintains an intellectual firewall between editorial copy (my posts) and the ads on this site, including the sponsored links. All posts and articles are independent of the advertisements.
In keeping with a policy of editorial independence:
1) There are no Posts-for-Pay articles on this site.
2) None of the written articles, including book reviews or media releases are paid placements.
3) As a freelancer for various magazines and newspapers, I have contracts with different organizations. Those contracts are also independent of my blogging activities and I'm not paid to mention any magazine, newspaper or media outlet.